Spire on Thursday announced that it is donating 50,000 reusable water bottles to students in Mobile County Public Schools.

The gas utility, which operates what used to be Alagasco in the Yellowhammer State, is making the donation to help reduce the spread of COVID-19 across the school system.

According to a release, students picked up Spire’s first delivery at Elizabeth Fonde Elementary School on Wednesday, with remaining water bottles to be subsequently delivered to additional schools.

The CDC encourages the use of personal water bottles to minimize the use and touching of water fountains. Spire’s water bottle donation is part of the company’s continued commitment to helping communities during the ongoing pandemic.

“Spire recognized a need within the community and came up with a solution which will hopefully make parent and student daily preparation for school a little bit easier,” stated Karl Ficken, manager of field operations for Spire. “We are all part of the larger community, so we want to create opportunities to support.”

Chresal D. Threadgill, Mobile County Public Schools superintendent, commented, “As Superintendent of Mobile County Public Schools, I would like to thank Spire for thinking outside-the-box and coming up with a way to support our children during this pandemic. Spire asked us a short-while back what they could do to help, and together we came up with the idea of reusable water bottles so our children can drink water safely throughout the day. Spire is a great partner of Mobile County Public Schools. I know each of our students is going to be excited to get his or her very own water bottle soon.”

Many students were excited to have a water bottle to take home.

“They are nice to give us a water bottle,” said Trena Webb, a Fonde Elementary fourth grader. “We need them. We can’t drink out of the water foundation anymore, so it will be nice to have our very own water bottle.”

Sean Ross is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn